1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a variable mode training assembly for improving ball hitting skills, such as hitting a baseball or other ball with a bat or the like.
2. Background Information
Baseball training devices, or assemblies, for improving a player's hitting skills fall into several categories. The most common type of training device has a stationary ball. These include variations of the simple hitting tee. This “stationary ball” category also includes devices with the ball attached to an anchored pivot, so that when the ball is hit, it rotates around the central pivot point. Other practice devices suspend the ball with multiple elastic bands, which return the ball to its original position after being hit.
A second category of batting practice assemblies features a moving ball. This “moving ball” category includes “soft-toss” machines, which have a ball that moves upward before falling into the hitting zone. Simple gravity drop devices usually have tubing through which the ball rolls before it drops from an exit portal. These “moving ball” devices are ordinarily either “hand-fed” or utilize a timing mechanism to release balls at a predetermined constant rate.
It is believed that commercially available stationary ball and moving ball practice assemblies really only benefit hitters with few or marginal hitting skills, such as beginners. Once a user has basic skills, it is believed herein that training with such practice devices does not lead to improvements during an actual game because such devices do not challenge a hitter's decision making reaction time or in-swing adjustments.
In general, a hitter must either take or swing at each pitch offered. A hitter has only about 0.438 seconds to respond to a pitch that averages 84 miles per hour over the approximately 54 feet from release point to contact point. This translates to a release velocity of about 90-91 miles per hour, since all pitches lose 8 to 10 percent of initial velocity from release to contact. Thus, a hitter has only 0.438 seconds to: (1) analyze the pitch as to velocity, location, rotation, and movement; (2) process this information and decide to swing or not to swing (go/no go reaction time); and (3) get the sweet spot of the bat to the ball (swing time), if the decision is to swing.
If a hitter trains to begin a swing on every pitch and then decides to abort the swing, the time difference between swing time and abort time can be shifted forward to analysis time. Abort time will be shorter than swing time. The hitter then has more information about the pitch and is therefore more likely to hit it well. The present invention helps players to “lay off bad pitches”, which commands a different mind set than asking a player to “find a good pitch to hit” or to “swing at strikes”.
It is believed that use of the practice assembly of the present invention over time will shorten the go/no go reaction time by increasing the efficiency of neural pathways in the areas of the brain (anterior cingulate cortex, etc.) that regulate the decision-making process. It is also believed herein that a hitter's swing time will improve by eliminating unnecessary and time wasting mechanics, such as wrapping the bat behind the player's head, or not getting the front heel down quickly and firmly. As the hitter progressively goes to the more challenging modes of operation of this invention, he or she must eliminate time wasting mechanics in order to succeed. If a hitter can shorten his go/no go reaction time and his swing time, he or she now has more time to analyze the pitch. With consistent use of the present batting practice assembly, a player's ball hitting skills and game time performance should improve.